Anthony Luciano is a 2001 graduate with a BFA in Acting and Directing. He credits URI Theatre with helping him establish a sense of artistic and self-identity that led him to pursue an interest in Shakespeare, and teach wherever his work takes him.

Luciano’s defining moments at URI helped prepare him for the outside world with a focus on cultivating the individual as an artist, and helping the student to see that they could be the artist they dreamed of becoming. According to Luciano, so many of the students that graduate from pre-professional programs are carbon copies of their mentors, or serve as soldiers in a theatre of industry.

As a young artist, Luciano found the need to create his own theatre using the Theatre department as a type of laboratory to make whatever it was he wanted to make, and he found this to be a remarkable experience. He said, “While I didn’t leave knowing any casting directors in New York, or how to have a directing career, I did leave URI with a sense that making art in a world that often felt like it didn’t want art was possible.” He found that to be an important lesson.

Luciano added that his favorite memory of the theatre department was the production of Twelfth Night; and the sharp, super loud, explosive sound cue that started his thesis production, and the excitement he felt about that play.

Asked what advice he would give to current URI theatre students, he said, “Theatre isn’t about people walking and talking, but about creating experiences, and embracing the theatre within theatre.”

There were some defining opportunities that Mr. Luciano found to be beneficial during his 4 years at URI. He was given the chance to act, direct and take on two Shakespeare plays, and he also embraced teaching and acting as a TA.

To this Anthony Luciano believes that [students] should work hard and be creative with the art of theatre.

by Gail Henriques